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Annabeth noticed something was wrong the second Percy refused to answer a question.
"...Percy?"
"Hm?"
"Did you borrow my pencil?"
"Nope."
"..."
"..."
"You definitely borrowed my pencil."
Percy looked offended.
"I would never."
Annabeth raised an eyebrow.
"You literally have it behind your ear."
His hand flew to his head.
"...This is someone else's."
Annabeth had learned long ago that when Percy Jackson started acting strange, one of three things was happening.
One: Monsters.
Two: Gods.
Three: He was trying very, VERY hard to hide something.
Judging by the way he practically sprinted away after that conversation while yelling, "LOVE YOU, GOTTA GO!"
...probably the third.
Later that morning she walked into the Athena cabin.
Piper nearly screamed.
"ANNABETH!"
"...Yes?"
Piper stood in the middle of the cabin with several rolls of blue ribbon wrapped around both arms.
Behind her, Hazel was trying to shove something glittery under a bunk.
Leo was upside down underneath a table.
"No reason for concern!" Piper said far too quickly.
Annabeth blinked.
"What are you doing?"
Leo's voice floated up.
"Definitely not making anything."
"...Why are you under the table?"
"I dropped...my dignity."
"..."
"...Still looking for it."
Hazel made a sound that suspiciously resembled a laugh turning into a cough.
Annabeth narrowed her eyes.
"You guys are weird."
"Yep!" Piper agreed immediately.
"Very weird."
Annabeth left.
The second the cabin door shut…
Leo popped out from under the table.
"That was SO CLOSE."
Hazel held up the banner she'd almost crushed.
‘HAPPY BIRTH
She quickly folded it.
"Percy's gonna kill us."
Around lunchtime Annabeth spotted Frank hauling what looked like eight folding tables toward the beach.
"...Frank?"
He jumped.
"Oh! Uh...exercise."
"With tables?"
"...Resistance training?"
She stared.
Jason, who had apparently been helping, nodded far too enthusiastically.
"Very effective."
Frank looked at Jason.
Jason looked at Frank.
Neither of them looked convincing.
Annabeth slowly backed away.
"...Okay."
She found Will in the infirmary.
Which, normally, wouldn't have been suspicious.
Except he had approximately twelve boxes of cupcakes.
"Will."
"Oh! Hi, Annabeth."
"...Are those cupcakes?"
"No."
"..."
"..."
"...Will."
"They're...medically relevant?"
She folded her arms.
"Explain."
Will looked toward the ceiling like maybe Apollo would descend and save him.
He did not.
"So..."
"So?"
"...Carbohydrates."
"..."
"...Healing?"
Annabeth pinched the bridge of her nose.
"You've been spending too much time with Percy."
Will sighed.
"I know."
She found Nico lurking outside the dining pavilion.
Normal.
She found him holding approximately thirty tiny paper stars.
Less normal.
"Nico."
He nearly dropped all of them.
"Oh."
"...What are those?"
He glanced down.
"...Craft supplies."
"You do crafts now?"
"...Will does."
"..."
"...I assist."
Annabeth looked at him.
He looked away.
"...Don't tell anyone."
"...I won't."
She walked away.
Nico immediately buried his face in his hands.
"I hate birthdays."
From somewhere nearby, Will called,
"You love birthdays!"
"I LOVE ONE BIRTHDAY!"
The weirdness continued.
Jason accidentally called her "birthday gi-"
"...General."
Leo banned her from entering Bunker Nine because "it wasn't finished yet."
Hazel disappeared every time Annabeth entered a room.
Piper kept asking oddly specific questions.
"So...hypothetically..."
Annabeth sighed.
"Yes?"
"What's your favorite cake?"
"...Chocolate?"
"Good."
"...Why?"
"No reason."
The strangest part...
...was Percy.
He kept disappearing.
Every conversation ended abruptly.
He looked exhausted.
And every single time she walked into a room...
He smiled way too innocently.
"Hey!"
"...Hi?"
"...How's your day?"
"...Fine?"
"Cool."
"..."
"..."
"...Bye!"
Then he'd leave.
Immediately.
Annabeth watched him jog away for the fourth time that day.
"...He's definitely hiding something."
By evening she'd built approximately fourteen theories.
A prank.
A quest.
A new prophecy.
Someone had broken something.
Poseidon had sent another horse.
None of them quite fit.
She was sitting by the lake trying to think when Percy wandered over.
"Hey."
"Hey."
He sat beside her.
He looked nervous.
Which...
Percy usually only looked nervous when asking her to dance or explaining property damage.
"So..."
"So?"
"You wanna..."
He rubbed the back of his neck.
"...take a walk?"
She studied him.
"...Sure."
They wandered toward the beach.
Percy was talking.
A lot.
Mostly nonsense.
"So...uh...did you know dolphins sleep with half their brains?"
"I did."
"Right."
"..."
"...Seaweed's cool."
"...Percy."
"Hm?"
"Are you trying to distract me?"
"What?"
"Never."
"..."
"You literally just complimented seaweed."
"It's underrated."
They reached the dunes.
Percy suddenly stopped.
"Oh."
"What?"
"I think..."
He pretended to squint.
"...I lost something."
Annabeth blinked.
"What?"
"...Uh."
He looked around dramatically.
"My..."
"..."
"...Favorite rock."
She stared.
"Percy."
"What?"
"You've never had a favorite rock."
"I do now."
"..."
"...Could you maybe go check over there?"
He pointed in the opposite direction.
Annabeth sighed.
"You are terrible at lying."
"I know."
"So what are you hiding?"
Percy opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Opened it again.
"...Nothing?"
She gave him a look.
He visibly crumbled.
"...Everything?"
Before Annabeth could respond-
Someone yelled,
"NOW!"
Lights burst to life across the beach.
Blue lanterns swung from the trees.
The tables she'd seen Frank carrying were covered in food.
Leo's inventions glittered overhead like tiny constellations.
Nico's paper stars floated on invisible strings, dancing in the evening breeze.
Music started somewhere.
Everyone jumped out at once.
"SURPRISE!"
Annabeth froze.
Her brain replayed the entire day.
The ribbon.
The tables.
The cupcakes.
The paper stars.
Percy's bizarre behavior.
Jason almost saying,
‘Birthday.’
"Oh."
She whispered it so quietly no one heard.
"Oh."
Percy winced.
"...Were we obvious?"
Leo laughed so hard he nearly fell over.
"OBVIOUS?"
Hazel smacked his shoulder.
"We tried!"
"We absolutely did not."
"I tried!"
"You hid under a table!"
"It was tactical."
Annabeth looked around.
Piper had decorated the entire beach in blue and silver.
Hazel had arranged flowers everywhere.
Frank had somehow cooked enough food to feed an army.
Jason had strung lights between the trees.
Leo had built tiny mechanical owls that carried glowing candles through the air.
Will stood beside a mountain of cupcakes.
Nico lingered near the back, pretending he hadn't made every floating star.
Percy watched her carefully.
"...You knew."
She smiled.
"I suspected."
"When?"
"The pencil."
"...That early?"
"You had my pencil."
"...Right."
She laughed.
"And then everyone started acting like they'd collectively forgotten how to be normal."
Will raised a hand.
"In fairness, we kind of did."
Percy stepped closer.
"So..."
"So?"
"...Happy birthday, Wise Girl."
He suddenly looked nervous again.
"I know you don't really like being the center of attention, so we figured...well..."
He gestured awkwardly.
"...Just us."
Annabeth looked around again.
Her family.
The family she'd found.
The family she'd chosen.
The people who had spent an entire day accidentally exposing a surprise because they loved her too much to act natural.
Her chest tightened.
"...You idiots."
Leo gasped dramatically.
"I made floating owls for you."
"They're wonderful."
"Phew."
"I was talking about all of you."
"Oh."
"That's fair."
She hugged Percy first.
He hugged back immediately, nearly lifting her off the ground.
Then Hazel.
Piper.
Frank.
Jason.
Will.
Even Leo.
Who announced,
"I am emotionally uncomfortable."
"You literally asked for this hug."
"I REGRET EVERYTHING."
Finally...
She stopped in front of Nico.
He awkwardly shoved his hands into his pockets.
"...Happy birthday."
She glanced up at the paper stars.
"You made these."
"No."
"...Nico."
"...Maybe."
She smiled.
"They're beautiful."
His ears turned pink.
"...Don't tell anyone."
Later that night everyone sat around the campfire.
The cake was half gone.
Someone had started singing terribly.
Leo insisted it was Jason.
Jason insisted it was Percy.
Percy insisted it was "group participation."
It definitely wasn't.
Annabeth leaned against Percy's shoulder.
"You know..."
"Hm?"
"You almost pulled it off."
He looked hopeful.
"Really?"
"No."
He sighed.
"I figured."
"But..."
She smiled.
"...Watching all of you fail so spectacularly was probably better."
He laughed.
"So this was actually a success?"
"Oh, absolutely."
"Even though everyone practically confessed all day?"
"Especially because everyone practically confessed all day."
Percy grinned.
"...Worth it?"
Annabeth reached for his hand beneath the table.
She squeezed it gently.
"Worth every suspicious conversation."
Around them, their friends laughed, argued, and stole each other's cupcakes.
The surprise itself hadn't been perfect.
But Annabeth decided that maybe perfection had never been the point.
The point was that eight complete disasters had spent an entire day trying to make her smile.
And somehow…
Despite all the clues...
Despite the terrible lies...
Despite Percy's "favorite rock" distraction...
They still managed to surprise her.
Not with the party.
But with just how loved she felt.